Pope Francis has appointed as adjunct secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Archbishop Charles Jude Scicluna, who will continue to serve as archbishop of Malta.

Archbishop Scicluna is presently also President of the College for the examination of appeals (in matters of delicta graviora) for the Ordinary Session of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office that processes sex abuse cases globally.

Archbishop Scicluna is considered the Catholic Church’s expert on investigating sex abuse allegations. Pope Francis had earlier this year sent him to Chile to gather information about the sex abuse scandal there.

While remaining the Archbishop of Malta, Scicluna will, with his new appointment, have a greater role in the congregation. He is expected to travel to Rome on a regular basis and in his absence in Malta, his Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Galea-Curmi, will assume the ordinary leadership of the Archdiocese of Malta.

The archbishop has in the past been called to investigate sex abuse allegations involving high-profile clergy such as Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legionaries of Christ who Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 ordered to “a life reserved to prayer and penance, renouncing any public ministry.”

During the pontificate of Benedict, who showed complete confidence in him, Archbishop Scicluna, gained a reputation as a man with “zero tolerance” for pedophilia, and who acted both on a judicial and preventive level.

Promoted for his service, Scicluna was appointed as auxiliary bishop in Malta in 2012 before Pope Francis made him archbishop in 2015. Since then, the pope has continued to call on him for assistance in difficult cases.

In 2014, for example, Archbishop Scicluna came to the Holy See’s aid, defending the church’s role at the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva.

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